Kalevala

[Fluks, H.W.]

Don:

>> Still, there were some complaints from parents about Don 
>> Rosa's Kalevala story. I think the complaints were
>> about showing the world of the dead.

> Did the Dutch translators actually call it "the world of the 
> DEAD"?

No, they didn't. But I thought it was pretty obvious, with a skeleton as a
guard.

> Tuonela was the "underworld" of the Kalevala...

For an outsider, there's no difference between "underworld" and "world of
the dead". I think only two or three Dutchmen had ever heard of Kalevala
before your story.

> I was always
> very careful to never refer to it in my script as "the land 
> of the dead".

But Donald *did* laugh Death in his face, didn't he?

> Maybe they can't translate my original
> script quite right since I called it the Underworld. The 
> NETHERworld. The Netherlands.

No, there's a clear distinction between "under" (a relation to something
else) and "nether" (an absolute measurement). The Netherlands are just low,
not BElow something else.

> do the Dutch call their country
> "the Netherlands" in their own tongue?

We call it "Nederland", which is the singular form of "the low countries".
It seems the Norwegians are the only other people who were sensible enough
to change the plural (NetherlandS) to a singular form.
When I was in America (Texas, actually), I had trouble explaining that "the
Netherlands" was just ONE country, and that Finland wasn't one of them...

(Why plural in the first place? Because in the 16th century, 17 small states
were united in "The Republic of the United Netherlands". A "United States"
avant la lettre...)

Anyway, "Nederland" = "Low country", which perfectly describes the situation
in most of the country. Large parts are below sea level.

--Harry.